As his troops sent the first shells flaming toward the murky shape in the
Charleston Harbor, the Confederate officer who gave the order to fire must
have certainly recalled his intensive training at West Point. Brigadier
General P.G.T. Beauregard, C.S.A., who graduated second in the Class of
1838, had a distinguished military career, including service in the Mexican
War, and had briefly served as Superintendent of the United States Military
Academy.
On this April morning in 1861, only two and one-half
months after he resigned from his post at West Point, Beauregard’s momentous
command would initiate a four-year period in American history wrought with
profound irony and human drama. The target of his pre-dawn offensive was
Fort Sumter, an unfinished Union fort built upon an artificial island of
rubble, manned by a handful of Federals led by Major Robert Anderson –
Beauregard’s former artillery instructor at West Point.
With this remarkable twist of fate, the War Between the
States began. A war that would cast friend against friend, and brother
against brother, and capture the imagination of a nation for generations to
come. Even today, the names of the battlefields and leaders of the Civil
War continue to stir our emotions. Robert E. Lee, Ulysses S. Grant, Thomas
“Stonewall” Jackson and William T. Sherman were joined by many other noted
leaders on both sides of the conflict who shared a common bond – their
valued education at West Point.
In honor of
the many graduates of West Point who served so valiantly, and the famed and
revered leaders on both sides of the conflict, the United States Society of
Arms & Armour, the Antique Arms Affiliate of America Remembers, proudly
presents a matched pair of magnificently decorated Henry rifles honoring
this epic time in American history. Officially authorized by the
Association of Graduates of the United States Military Academy, the
West Point Civil War Union Leaders Tribute and
the West Point Civil War Confederate Leaders Tribute Rifles are issued in strictly limited editions of only 500 of each Tribute,
and they are available exclusively from America Remembers.
